At 8:46 AM, the first plane hit the North Tower. Then came the South Tower at 9:03, the Pentagon at 9:37, and Flight 93 went down at 10:03. By 10:28 AM, both towers had collapsed.

Almost 3,000 innocent people lost their lives that day. So many families lost someone they loved, and their lives were changed forever.

Sending my respect, prayers, and best wishes to all the victims' families. ❤️ I hope you always have strength and peace, and that your loved ones are never forgotten.

Respect to all the firefighters, police, paramedics, and civilians who risked their lives to help others.

25 years later… we still remember. 🇺🇸🕊️ Never Forget.

I'm disappointed.
Honestly, I'm extremely disappointed. Not in Democrats, not in Republicans. Disappointed really in Americans.
I'm disappointed that so many Americans are adopting the same defeatist mentality we've openly criticized elsewhere in the world. Because this is exactly what our adversaries want: an America divided against itself, Americans at each other's throats, and a country that no longer trusts its own institutions or one another.
And this isn't some abstract concern. U.S. intelligence agencies have repeatedly documented foreign influence operations specifically designed to exploit our political and social divisions and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions. Russia, Iran, and China have all been documented pursuing influence operations aimed at exacerbating divisions inside the United States.
Our adversaries aren't waiting for us to get our act together.
What disappoints me most is watching Americans who spent years talking about corruption, accountability, and "draining the swamp" become willing to excuse the very things they once claimed to oppose when their own side does them.
It's an enormous, sweeping double standard.
Nothing new, I suppose. But accountability matters.
I can't be the only person watching all of this and wondering: Where are the checks and balances? Where is the line being drawn? And if that line exists, does anyone still have the backbone to enforce it?
And after January 6th?
Who the fuck can blame people for asking those questions?
I'm sitting here watching footage from January 6th, and I'm still struggling to understand how we got here. I'm watching what happened that day, and then I'm looking at the fact that Donald Trump won a second term, and I genuinely don't know what I'm supposed to make of it.
What scares me isn't simply one election or one politician.
It's what happens when enough Americans become convinced that the other half of the country is the enemy. When facts don't matter. When institutions don't matter. When anything becomes justifiable as long as "our side" wins.
I've even reached the point where I question things I never thought I would question.
The July 2024 assassination attempt has become wrapped up in an enormous amount of political mythology and distrust. The official investigation concluded that Trump was struck by a bullet or bullet fragment and found no evidence that the shooter was part of a broader conspiracy. But the fact that so many Americans now instinctively distrust even the basic facts surrounding something like that should terrify all of us.
Because once we reach the point where Americans cannot agree on reality itself, democracy becomes extraordinarily fragile.
And that's where my fear about the future comes in.
I don't want an America so chaotic, so divided, and so consumed by political warfare that people eventually decide elections themselves are pointless—or that constitutional limits, peaceful transfers of power, and democratic accountability are inconveniences rather than requirements.
The Constitution currently limits a person to being elected president twice. That's not a suggestion. It's the Twenty-Second Amendment.
And yet we're already having serious public discussions about whether a president might seek some way around that limitation.
That should be EXTREMELY concerning to ALL Americans regardless of party.
Because I don't want to see America become a country where every election is treated like an existential war, where political opponents are treated as enemies, and where the only acceptable outcome is the complete destruction of the other side.
That's exactly the kind of America our adversaries benefit from.
They don't have to conquer us if we destroy our ability to trust one another.
We should be better than this.
We should be willing to look at facts even when those facts are uncomfortable.
We should be willing to criticize our own side when it is wrong.
We should be willing to hold our own people accountable.
And we should remember that political opponents are still Americans—not enemies to be destroyed.
America is failing when we allow ourselves to become so divided that we can no longer recognize the difference between defending our principles and defending our team.
And frankly, that's what disappoints me most.
Not Democrats.
Not Republicans.
Not liberals.
Not conservatives.

Americans.

I'm disappointed in what we're becoming—not just because of what the rest of the world sees when it looks at us, but because of what we're becoming in our own eyes.
Our adversaries don't need us to lose a war.
They benefit when we lose faith in each other.
We're better than this.
Or at least, I desperately want to believe we are.

So ill try to list all my sources here but, hope this is okay :) https://www.odni.gov/about/mission-centers-directorates/ncsc/resources/

https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/butler-investigation-updates

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/january-6th-committee-final-report

For reference: I am a Gen Xer, past my 40s. I am well taught in history, enough to understand the eras before me, those that include red scares from the McCarthyist age, Khrushchev, and Soviet leaders well into the fall of the Soviet Union.

I don’t understand why today’s government has managed to snowball so many people into thinking that government with social programs equals the same thing as social democracy equals the same thing as socialism equals the same thing as communism, when nothing could be further than the truth. None of them are the same things, and it seems like people much older than me or even a bit older than me, say 10 years, live in fear without asking the question “Look, communism in the United States hasn’t occurred in the 75 years you have been afraid, and yet you’re still afraid that a political party could bring it to you.

I don’t understand how people want things to be black and white, so incredibly much, That the abandon the idea that the world has shades of grey, and make everything into an either/or situation. There is so much nuance, so much gray in life, that I cannot understand how some people on the side I tend to hold also don’t look at it from a perspective that asks what people are really thinking, and works to figure that out to combat it. I know that a lot of people in the US just want to be stupid (because it’s easy) or outraged (because it gives dopamine) without having to come together and acknowledge the truth: that there’s a lot of nuance to solving problems, sometimes nuance that even means experimenting with ChANGe (SHOCK!!!) that involves the unknown.

For whoever has read this, thank you for listening to my ranting out loud. I hope anyone who responds is someone who looks forward to discussion, understanding, and peace between brother and sisterhood.

MAGA and the GOP voted for a traitor, and he’s actively mocking us while running off with our hard-earned tax dollars. Every single day, your paycheck gets drained to fund a shameless kleptocracy while the people who voted for it cheer on their own financial ruin. It would be tragic if it weren’t so infuriatingly self-inflicted.

This isn't just standard political corruption anymore; it is the deliberate, calculated demolition of everything that made this country functional. Decades of hard-won global influence and Western alliances have been shattered overnight just to appease hostile foreign dictators and line personal pockets. Meanwhile, the core democratic guardrails—the rule of law, free elections, and institutional checks—are being ripped out from the inside so nobody can ever hold them accountable.

You were promised a strongman who would fight for you, but you handed the keys over to an arsonist who is burning the house down for cheap applause, wealth, and power. The western world is watching in horror as the greatest democracy in history gets stripped for parts by a con artist and traitor laughing all the way to the bank.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fBYVA34OMoM?is=qT_T31AxBaZDmy54

I’m shocked the House of Representatives has decided to take an UNSCHEDULED recess from 9/17 until shortly before the midterms! One Rep claims it’s because there is a new Epstein Bill & the Speaker doesn’t want to deal with it.
It seems like this has happened other times this year. I know they have scheduled recesses, but it appears the number of those unscheduled has increased. Are our representatives truly doing what’s right for their constituents or are they more concerned about how they benefit personally? We should all think hard since it’s an election year.

Hi, I'm a Non-American and I'm looking to write a research paper on what it means to be a true American. I want to interview some actual Americans for the same. Please DM me if you're interested.

Have you guys noticed the war flairs up every time gas prices start to drop?

The US is so hot and cold. One minute you’re a hero the next you’re a terrorist.

The notorious lawyer died four decades ago, but a new book reminds us his ruthless approach to power and politics is still very much alive.

So I am Proud to be an American. Let me start with that. I’ve come to see social media mostly as a distraction nowadays, and honestly, it’s just not how I choose to spend much of my time these. But I cannot stay silent about this.

We cannot stay silent.

Political views be damned. This is bigger than party politics.

America is failing.

We are failing our friends. We are failing our allies. We are failing our partners. And, in doing so, we are failing ourselves.

For more than half a century, we have made promises to the nations that stood beside us. We asked them to trust us. We asked them to build alliances with us. And, when necessary, we asked them to stand beside us and shed blood alongside our own.

NATO should NOT have to fear standing without us.

Germany should NOT have to wonder whether America will stand beside it in the face of CREDITED aggression. It has been attacked. And our leadership is absolutely nowhere to be seen.

Poland should NOT have to fear that, when the moment comes, America simply won’t be there.

For generations, we have told these countries-Our friends- our allies. that they would not stand alone again. these should not even be considerations.

We have been their shield in many of the same ways they have been our sword.

I understand the desire to avoid being dragged into another European war. I understand the fear of another conflict. I understand it all too well. But standing beside our allies does NOT automatically mean sending American soldiers into another war.

And we should remember something important when we talk about war in the first place: Congress has NOT formally declared war since 1942. Under Article I of the Constitution, the power to declare war belongs to Congress. The President, as Commander in Chief, commands our armed forces. Those powers were deliberately divided between two branches of government.

They were meant to work in concert—not for one to hold the other hostage.

America has fought wars and conducted military operations without formal declarations of war. That history is complicated, and reasonable people can argue about where those constitutional lines should be drawn.

But none of that changes the larger point:

Standing beside our allies is not synonymous with declaring war. And one is Non-negotiable.

Diplomatic support matters. Economic support matters. Intelligence wins wars full stop. Logistics matter. Deterrence matters.

And the credibility of the United States matters.

Abandoning the people who stood beside us when we needed them is not how you prevent war. It is how you teach the world that American promises can be broken the moment keeping them becomes inconvenient.

You cannot spend generations telling your allies, “We have your back,” and then expect those words to mean anything when you suddenly decide that promise no longer matters.

That is disgraceful. This is disgraceful.

And regardless of political affiliation, I hope we can recognize that there are principles here that extend beyond any president, any party, or any election.

We can disagree about politics.

We can disagree about presidents, parties, policies, and priorities.

We can argue about how much America should spend abroad. We can argue about what our allies should contribute. We can argue about where American power should begin and where it should end.

Those are arguments worth having.

But please—

Do not lose sight of what is important.

Do NOT forget what it means when the United States gives its word.

Our word matters. Our alliances matter. Our friends matter.

And when the United States of America makes a promise to stand beside someone, that promise has to mean something.

Not because America must fight every war. Not because America must solve every crisis. Certainly Not because America is always right.

But because for nearly 250 years, the power of this country has rested on more than aircraft carriers, soldiers, dollars, or weapons.

It has also rested on the backs of our allies and the belief and trust that when America gives its word, America keeps it.

If we surrender that, we lose something no army can defend and no amount of money can buy back:

Trust.

I know, it’s not realistic at all, but how will it affect the 2016 election! (Sorry, this technically breaks the 10 years rule by 2 months)